High turnout in Tripura assembly byelection (Third Lead)

Over 88 percent of the 38,843 voters Saturday cast their ballot in the byelection to the Manu assembly seat in Tripura, officials said.

"Over 88 percent voters have cast their ballot in the byelection. The election was absolutely peaceful and smooth. There was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal told IANS.

He said there was one complaint of electoral misconduct raised by a political party. "We have inquired into the complaint and it was found untrue," he said.

"Voters, including women, were seen queuing up to exercise their franchise in most of the 46 polling stations in 38 places after balloting started at 7 a.m.," he said.

Voting officially ended at 5 p.m.

"Central Reserve Police Force and Tripura State Rifles personnel were deployed for smooth polling," poll returning officer Rajib Datta told IANS over phone from Sabroom, 135 km south of Agartala.

Jindal said in Agartala that the over 38,000 voters include 18,929 women electorate.

He said two observers, 38 micro-observers and 230 polling personnel were appointed.

The bypoll was necessitated after former forest, industries and rural development minister Jitendra Chaudhary, who won from the Manu constituency five times on a Communist Party of India-Marxist ticket, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Tripura East constituency.

Though there were six candidates in the fray, the main contest was between the ruling CPI-M candidate Pravat Chowdhury and Congress leader Mailafru Mog.

Chowdhury, a graduate from the Nagaland University, recently resigned from a senior position in Tripura's agriculture department to contest the election.

Mog, could not clear his Madhyamik examination, has been a member of almost all non-Left parties at different times.

The Bharatiya Janata Party fielded Nirmal Kumar Tripura and the Trinamool Congress nominated Angthai Mog.

Two tribal-based local parties, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, also fielded their contenders.